The autumn leaves were spiralling from the trees in Cooper Park yesterday and it seems to gets dark about a half-hour earlier every night. Autumn is the time I associate with the Doctor Who annual. The 1967 annual was bought for me in a long-gone shop in East Kilbride- next to Crystals (now Fuzion, I think). The programme was deep in its Base Under Siege phase of Cybermen, Yeti and Ice Warriors. I think the annual cemented a life-long realtionship then. But for the next dozen years, aside from TV Comic, Countdown and TV Action, the annual was the only place to find brand new stories about the Doctor.
Since the tv show came back to undreamed-of levels of popularity, the Annual has become a slim collection of publicity photos and gaudy cartoons. The five gorgeous Storybooks, comprising new fiction written by tv scriptwriters, were superceded last year by the Brilliant Book, which was admittedly, brilliant, but nonetheless more a record, albeit a lavish one, of making of the previous season. But IDW Comics have just released the second annual for their ongoing US Who comic
The Barr/Aparo origin for PS is better than Alan Moore's version. Fact.
It's only nine months since I got the previous edition in FP Aberdeen. The cover's an homage to Secret Origins 10, as you can see.
The first story in DWAnnual 2011 is an overlong sight-gag based on images of Escher- someone seems to have missed Castrovalva- and the second is a photo-realist, sentimental short that reminded me of the climax of Gatiss's Last of the Gadarene. Dan McDaid's strip "tuesday" is the funniest, cleverest and closest in spirit to the tv show. His scratchy pencils also evoke the cartooning of weekly Britsh comics. I enjoyed the "trailer" for the monthly series featuring Kevin, the neurotic robot tyrannosaur.
So, after The Doctor's Daughter and The Doctor's Wife, last night we got "The Doctor's Bromance". It doesn't feel that long since Doctor Ten was running from his inevitable demise and consequently deflowering Elizabeth R, (allegedly, the bad, bad boy.) By contrast, on the day before his fatal appointment with The Impossible Astronaut, Doctor Eleven drops by for a Boys Night In.
Closing Time was light as a fruit fool on one of those inexplicably-popular tv cookery competitions that are the 21st century version of Changing Rooms. Corden brought the foolery and Lynda Barron, on her third visit to Who, thought there might be something fruity going on.
I had been stonily unimpressed by James Corden's onscreen persona over the last few years- attention-seeking, needy and camp- but last year I was suprised to find I enjoyed The Lodger. Gareth Roberts had originally written the story as a comic strip for Ten and Mickey Smith but the tv version gave us the chance to see how eccentrically funny Eleven could be.
From the first, with Matt's reference to Troughton in The Three Doctors ("You've redecorated. I don't like it") I thought there should be more episodes without the Ponds ( And had you forgotten Petrichor was the smell of earth after rain too?). Smith had a beautiful scene with Baby Alfie where he communicated the Doctor's aged weariness. But after just one scene with Corden, I realised I actually wouldn't mind a whole series of The Doctor and Craig. What can I say? Donna Noble is one of my favourite companions.
Of course, this is Who, so you have to be able to accept that parental love can cause Cyber-heads explode, (making this episode's climax feel reminiscent of Night Terrors) and that the Doctor would make a big palaver about endangering Amy and Rory, dump them, then do exactly the same to an ickle baby. But expecting consistency from the ones you love will only make you crazy.
I went on a tour of BBC Scotland's Pacific Quay hq on Doors Open Day four years ago. One of the highlights was the appearance of a Cyberman who came clanking down a corridor. I remember one wee boy was rigid with fear. However, I've been underwhelmed by the stomping steel cyborgs in their last few appearances. The Cybermen had a six-year lay off after The Invasion and then were absent for seven years after Revenge of the Cybermen. I hope we might at least see a seventh season devoid of the silver giants from the Void.
I was afraid the coda of the episode would be a sickly one ( those three kids so inspired by the Doctor that they went off to invent a cure for migraines or open a donkey sanctuary). However, it felt like the loose ends of the season were being addressed. Alex Kingston has called her camp but ultimately I find River Song is a tragic character. The Doctor's "bespoke psychopath" has been imperilled throughout her life as a direct result of his actions. If the Doctor's death at Lake Silencio is a Flesh fake-out, I worry that it might invalidate River's self-sacrifice in Forest of the Dead. I wonder if the Viking-looking character will tie up "the picnic at Asgard"? Also I think the Oldest Question isn't "Doctor Who?" I thought instead of "Popping the Question"- maybe Silence Falls when the Doctor asks "Will you marry me?"
Next: Death of a Ladies' Man
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That would've been W & R Holmes - newsagent, stationer, tobacconist, bookshop, art store and toyshop. Brilliant place; I miss it to this day.
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